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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, May 24 2012 @ 01:06 PM EDT |
Y'know though - one thing the article kind of almost got
right...it was reasonable for Sun to expect to profit a bit
from developing a useful language. That's why Sun used
convoluted licensing and charged for the certification kit -
so they could get a bit of profit.
Google's original negotiations with Sun appeared to share
that viewpoint. Google seemed quite willing to pay Sun
while not getting a ton in return. As far as I can tell,
they mostly broke down over a mismatch in company styles
regarding development and control issues regarding the code.
(Basically, Google prefers smart, fast programmers and rapid
development, while Sun had a lot of 'C' players and
bureaucracy.) Google's assessment seemed to be that, even
though it'd be reasonable to pay for something, Sun's net
contribution would be negative. So, Google figured out a
technical, legalistic approach that resulted in them not
needing to pay for a license or negotiate.
I can see the justification in terms of:
'not wasting a ton of time'.
And I still think Google mostly succeeded at 'don't be
evil.'
But, the decision to avoid dealing with Sun by creating
Dalvik still strikes me as a bit evil. (Albeit, in
hindsight, with Sun being taken over by Oracle, probably a
really, really good idea to avoid having any part of your
platform involving shared control with Ellison.)
--Erwin
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